Four reasons Rascal Flatts might have canceled its Allentown show -- and why you can't blame PPL Center

Wednesday night’s announcement by country band Rascal Flatts that its concert Friday at Allentown’s new PPL Center was canceled has left a lot of people scratching their heads.

The vocal trio that’s one of the biggest country music acts today and known for its platinum hits “What Hurts The Most,” “Bless the Broken Road” and “Life is a Highway” didn’t explain why it was pulling out of the show, which was announced in June, with less than two days notice.

It’s easy to point out that this is the second concert in the arena’s first four that has been canceled – Cher pulled out of her Sept. 15 concert with a little more than three days notice. But that certainly wasn’t PPL Center’s fault – the diva canceled a dozen shows in all because of illness.

Rascal Flatts’ cancellation isn’t the arena’s fault either.

An email sent to a spokesperson for Rascal Flatts didn’t get an immediate response, and the band on its website last night said only that “We regret to inform you that the Rascal Flatts concert previously scheduled at PPL Center on Friday, September 26th has been canceled.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”

The arena also didn’t give a reason for the cancellation, saying pretty much the same thing.

There have been some pretty wild conjectures of what happened, such as the band is breaking up (very unlikely, since there’s no indication its concert Saturday in Richmond, Va., is off) or that the ice on PPL Center’s arena started to melt when it was covered (even less likely).

You can be sure the band wouldn’t risk its reputation if the cancellation was PPL Center’s fault. It would have openly said it was a facility issue.

The cancelation apparently was in the works for a while. A telephone interview that Lehigh Valley Music had scheduled with band member Jay Demarcus for 11 a.m. Wednesday was abruptly canceled – also without reason.

But there are a few likely scenarios why a concert would be canceled, and all are Rascal Flatts’ fault, not PPL Center’s:

Illness: Not likely, because just one show was canceled, but not out of the question. The band previously canceled shows Aug. 7-9 due to an illness by lead singer Gary LeVox. At the time, the band's website quoted band member Jay DeMarcus as saying, "It is incredibly difficult to make the decision to cancel shows and disappoint our loyal fans who have been so good to us over the years."

So you think if it was illness, Rascal Flatts would have said at least something.

Cher rescheduled her show after sickness. There’s no indication Rascal Flatts will reschedule, though its tour routing might not permit it.

The band didn’t want to open its tour in Allentown: Also not likely, since it seems it wouldn’t have waited until two days before the show to cancel. That said, Rascal Flatts now will open its tour at Bon Securs Washington Redskins Training Center in Richmond. Va., which has a seating capacity of 18,000 – nearly twice that of PPL Center. It’s possible that after a sold-out show Sunday at the 15,000-capacity DTE Energy Music Theater in Michigan, the band wanted a bolder statement to open its indoor tour season. If that’s true, it’s the band’s loss.

Money dispute: This one is more likely. It’s weird how the music business works, but it’s almost routine that acts try to squeeze money out of venues even at the last minute and after payment has been agreed upon. Perhaps the production costs for Rascal Flatts’ indoor show were far more than expected, and the band wanted PPL Center to foot the bill -- and bolted when it wouldn’t.

Band production problems: This one seems the most likely. It’s no easy task to take a big outdoor tour and modify it to play indoor arenas. It seems likely that Rascal Flatts found out it wasn’t logistically ready to shift its show and needed more time and an easier fit such as Bon Securs Center to start. This happens more than you think, and seems like the plausible reason.

Or at least the best reason until someone actually explains what happened.